Titan Medical licenses out most of its IP to Intuitive, CEO steps down

Titan Medical recently announced it entered into a licensing agreement with Intuitive Surgical and that the company’s CEO is resigning.

Under the agreement, robotic-assisted surgery company Titan Medical has granted Intuitive a non-exclusive license to all of Titan’s IP, with the exception of the IP that is exclusively licensed to another party under a June 2020 license agreement.

The agreement includes an upfront payment of $7.5 million for certain intellectual property of Titan Medical.

Titan will retain ownership of the licensed IP, along with the associated rights, including the right to continue to develop and commercialize the technologies covered by the licensed IP and the right to license the IP to other third parties, according to a news release.

Corporate leadership and strategic update

Also this week, Titan Medical announced that its board of directors had approved a strategic transition in the company’s business from the development and commercialization of robotic-assisted surgery technologies to evaluating new opportunities to further develop and license its intellectual property. Titan will retain the rights necessary to develop and commercialize robotic-assisted surgery technologies, should it choose to do so, including a two-instrument Enos single-access RAS system and a three-instrument single-access RAS system that builds on the Enos system.

In a push to further reduce operating costs in the business, Titan Medical announced the following management changes, effective June 1:

• President and CEO Cary Vance will step down, and Paul Cataford will be appointed interim president and CEO while the company continues with its strategic transition. Vance will remain on the board.
• Chien Huang, the current VP of finance, will be appointed chief financial officer, and the current CFO, Stephen Lemieux, will transition to a consulting role.
• Jasminder Brad, VP of legal and IP, general counsel and corporate secretary, will transition to a consulting role to assist and advise the company with IP transition and strategy.
• Bill Fahey, VP of operations and manufacturing, will transition to a consulting role.
• Nate Jones, director of human resources, will transition to a consulting role to assist with Human Resources matters related to Titan Medical USA.

“I would like to congratulate Chien on his appointment to CFO. Chien is a seasoned financial professional with experience in an IP licensing business,” Cataford, chair of Titan Medical, said in a news release. “We would like to thank Stephen, Jasminder, Bill and Nate for their effective leadership through the strategic review process and for their willingness to remain engaged and available in a consulting capacity to support the company through the strategic transition. The announcement made last week is demonstrative of the Company’s foundational intellectual property and its important role in the field of robotic-assisted surgery. Finally, we would also like to thank Cary for his time as President and CEO and look forward to continuing to work with him on the Board.”